{"id":17980,"date":"2019-07-24T00:20:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T16:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/lightsail-2-unfurls-in-orbit-marking-the-climax-of-solar-sail-experiment\/"},"modified":"2019-07-24T00:20:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T16:20:12","slug":"lightsail-2-unfurls-in-orbit-marking-the-climax-of-solar-sail-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/lightsail-2-unfurls-in-orbit-marking-the-climax-of-solar-sail-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"LightSail 2 unfurls in orbit, marking the climax of solar sail experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_511705\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-511705\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-511705\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/190723-sail2-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/190723-sail2-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/190723-sail2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/190723-sail2-1260x709.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-511705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows LightSail 2\u2019s four triangular solar sails fully deployed in orbit. (Planetary Society Illustration \/ Josh Spradling)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The nonprofit Planetary Society says its LightSail 2 experiment spread out its solar sails today, nearly a month after it took a piggyback ride to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Following through on 2015\u2019s LightSail 1 mission, this latest flight is designed to demonstrate not only that the 18.4-foot-wide, 4.5-micron thick reflective Mylar sails can be successfully deployed from a shoebox-sized spacecraft, but also that they can be used to maneuver in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>LightSail 2 is pushed by the pressure of sunlight, much as a seagoing sailboat is pushed by the pressure of the wind. Theoretically, bigger and more capable sails could be used to drive a spacecraft around the solar system, or even outward to other stars.<\/p>\n<p>The $7 million project is largely funded by Planetary Society members and private donors. LightSail 2 was packed aboard the Falcon Heavy as part of a larger payload called Prox-1 and delivered to orbit on June 25. Since then, the spacecraft has been going through checkouts and snapping pictures of the planet below.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s crucial unfurling of the experiment\u2019s four triangular sails was monitored closely from Mission Control at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Huddled around their laptops, team members broke out in applause when telemetry indicated that the deployment mechanism performed as expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuccess! We\u2019re sailing, peoples!\u201d the Planetary Society\u2019s executive director, Bill Nye (the Science Guy), exulted in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1153770166888497152&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2019%2Flightsail-2-unfurls-orbit-marking-climax-solar-sail-experiment%2F&amp;sessionId=d451b67624aa479e20e0cbcde32fdbcab50addca&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1153770166888497152\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782800382136150187=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Success! We\u2019re sailing, peoples! https:\/\/t.co\/UnLbtS7CKg<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bill Nye (@BillNye) July 23, 2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Hours later, the Planetary Society reported that the spacecraft\u2019s major systems \u201cwere reporting nominally.\u201d Early signs suggested that the sail array was tracking the sun properly, but controllers said communications with the spacecraft weren\u2019t as good as expected, perhaps due to the craft\u2019s orientation as it passed overhead.<\/p>\n<p>The Mission Control team wasn\u2019t able to download the first post-deployment images but will try again on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>LightSail 2 has already built up a gallery\u2019s worth of images from its 450-mile-high orbit, including glorious views of Earth\u2019s ocean-blue and cloud-white disk.<\/p>\n<p>The Planetary Society offers a tracking website that provides LightSail 2\u2019s current location and sighting opportunities. However, because the spacecraft is in a 24-degree orbital inclination, it won\u2019t be visible at latitudes greater than 42 degrees north or south. For North America, that means locations north of Chicago and New York are out of luck.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment\u2019s orbit-raising phase is expected to last about a month. LightSail 2\u2019s attitude control system isn\u2019t sophisticated enough to keep its orbit circular as it maneuvers, and that means atmospheric drag will eventually force the spacecraft into a fiery final plunge. With luck, the sails could last a year before they burn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows LightSail 2\u2019s four triangular solar sails fully deployed in orbit. (Planetary Society Illustration \/ Josh Spradling) The nonprofit Planetary Society says its LightSail 2 experiment spread out its solar sails today, nearly a month after it took a piggyback ride to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Following through on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4031,2573,4837],"class_list":["post-17980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-lightsail","tag-planetary-society","tag-solar-sails"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}